The Social Cancer, by José Rizal - Home

CHAPTER VII 50
aunt snatched her from that position she unconsciously threw her arms around the old lady's neck and rained
kisses upon her.
"Foolish child, what's the matter with you?" the old lady was at last able to say as she wiped a tear from her
faded eyes. Maria Clara felt ashamed and covered her eyes with her plump arm.
"Come on, get ready, come!" added the old aunt fondly. "While he is talking to your father about you. Come,
don't make him wait." Like a child the maiden obediently followed her and they shut themselves up in her
chamber.
Capitan Tiago and Ibarra were conversing in a lively manner when Aunt Isabel appeared half dragging her
niece, who was looking in every direction except toward the persons in the room.
What said those two souls communicating through the language of the eyes, more perfect than that of the lips,
the language given to the soul in order that sound may not mar the ecstasy of feeling? In such moments, when
the thoughts of two happy beings penetrate into each other's souls through the eyes, the spoken word is
halting, rude, and weak--it is as the harsh, slow roar of the thunder compared with the rapidity of the dazzling
lightning flash, expressing feelings already recognized, ideas already understood, and if words are made use
of it is only because the heart's desire, dominating all the being and flooding it with happiness, wills that the
whole human organism with all its physical and psychical powers give expression to the song of joy that rolls
through the soul. To the questioning glance of love, as it flashes out and then conceals itself, speech has no
reply; the smile, the kiss, the sigh answer.
Soon the two lovers, fleeing from the dust raised by Aunt Isabel's broom, found themselves on the azotea
where they could commune in liberty among the little arbors. What did they tell each other in murmurs that
you nod your heads, O little red cypress flowers? Tell it, you who have fragrance in your breath and color on
your lips. And thou, O zephyr, who learnest rare harmonies in the stillness of the dark night amid the hidden
depths of our virgin forests! Tell it, O sunbeams, brilliant manifestation upon earth of the Eternal, sole
immaterial essence in a material world, you tell it, for I only know how to relate prosaic commonplaces. But
since you seem unwilling to do so, I am going to try myself.
The sky was blue and a fresh breeze, not yet laden with the fragrance of roses, stirred the leaves and flowers
of the vines; that is why the cypresses, the orchids, the dried fishes, and the Chinese lanterns were trembling.
The splash of paddles in the muddy waters of the river and the rattle of carriages and carts passing over the
Binondo bridge came up to them distinctly, although they did not hear what the old aunt murmured as she saw
where they were: "That's better, there you'll be watched by the whole neighborhood." At first they talked
nonsense, giving utterance only to those sweet inanities which are so much like the boastings of the nations of
Europe--pleasing and honey-sweet at home, but causing foreigners to laugh or frown.
She, like a sister of Cain, was of course jealous and asked her sweetheart, "Have you always thought of me?
Have you never forgotten me on all your travels in the great cities among so many beautiful women?"
He, too, was a brother of Cain, and sought to evade such questions, making use of a little fiction. "Could I
forget you?" he answered as he gazed enraptured into her dark eyes. "Could I be faithless to my oath, my
sacred oath? Do you remember that stormy night when you saw me weeping alone by the side of my dead
mother and, drawing near to me, you put your hand on my shoulder, that hand which for so long a time you
had not allowed me to touch, saying to me, 'You have lost your mother while I never had one,' and you wept
with me? You loved her and she looked upon you as a daughter. Outside it rained and the lightning flashed,
but within I seemed to hear music and to see a smile on the pallid face of the dead. Oh, that my parents were
alive and might behold you now! I then caught your hand along with the hand of my mother and swore to love
you and to make you happy, whatever fortune Heaven might have in store for me; and that oath, which has
never weighed upon me as a burden, I now renew!